Witnesses testify in Gudino trial

Joe McDonald

Thursday

Jul 11, 2019 at 6:24 PMJul 11, 2019 at 8:07 PM

Anthony Gudino told a caseworker on the day of his 5-month-old daughter's death from a traumatic blow to the head that he “didn’t do it on purpose," the caseworker testified Thursday at Gudino's homicide trial in Monroe County Court, as the prosecution presented its third day of testimony.

Gudino made the comment "very fast" and then began asking Natalie Hardy, now a supervisor at Monroe County Children and Youth, questions about the potential criminal charges he might be facing and wondered "what if he pleaded to involuntary manslaughter."

During the interview with Hardy, Gudino said he drank two cans of beer and smoked marijuana after his wife left their Ridgeway apartment in East Stroudsburg at about 3:30 a.m. to go to work at the Dunkin Donuts near the Stroud Mall, and then went back to bed. Trooper Tom Slavin testified he found a half empty bottle of tequila in a bedroom closet, seven packs of rolling papers and a glass marijuana bowl in the apartment.

Gudino was late getting his son Anthony ready for school and missed the bus that morning. He placed his infant daughter in a stroller for the walk over to the J.M. Hill Elementary School.

The school receptionist, Linda Clare, testified she saw the infant that morning and she looked fine. A few hours later she was carried through the trauma doors at then Pocono Medical Center by her father, not breathing and on the verge of death. The infant died as she was being prepped for a helicopter flight to an Allentown-area hospital.

Prosecution witnesses said, as has been stated throughout the trial, that Gudino never gave a clear explanation of what had happened to his daughter.

Detective Richard Wolbert testified there was something else that was unusual about Gudino.

"He never asked about her (the infant)," Wolbert said. Wolbert said Gudino smelled of alcohol when he was interviewed that afternoon. The detective also said he saw bruising on the infant's forehead as she was being readied for the helicopter, and took photos.

Wolbert said he spoke to the infant's mother, Jasmine Santiago. "She said he (Gudino) was an alcoholic, and she keeps money locked up so he can't get to it," Wolbert testified.

Gudino asked Wolbert, "if they'd plead down to manslaughter," a question he asked others several times that day.

The jury also got an insight into Gudino's relationship with his mother through a recorded telephone call at the Monroe County Correctional Facility.

Gudino was already under stress before his arrest. He had recently lost his job, reportedly because he was suspected of smoking marijuana. That day he not only missed getting his son on the school bus, he missed several cabs that his wife had sent to the apartment so he could go to his old employer and pick up his last paycheck.

During his talk with his mother, Gudino fast-talked pieces of explanations of what happened that day, but mostly talked about himself and the tough time he was having in jail.

"Ma -- I swear to God, Ma, I did not do anything to harm my baby, nothing at all, mom. Ma, they're -- they're gonna have me -- first of all. I'm on 22 hour f------ lockdown. I get out for two hours a day. I try my very best to try to sleep all through it, if I'm not crying. Then, you know, I try to go to sleep, you know, right? I don't know what the hell's gonna happen with the rest of my life."

Prosecutors want to put Gudino in jail for the rest of his life.

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